Over the top movie straight into the gutter of history

Rating: Null/10 (6 May 2000)

This is quite a poor movie on many fronts, although it does succeed in combining an impressive cast and some large battle scenes. The story is unfortunately populated by cartoon characters. Some of them are so hideous e.g. french farmer celebrating shelling of the beach right by his house, that I just hoped the writers would have had the mercy to kill them quickly. Unfortunately, they did not. The acting is wooden (yes, John Wayne is here), and the actors are given some howler lines to deliver. The battle scenes, although using an impressive number of extras and equipment, fail to deliver on the realism side; the cliff climbing scene is just plain silly. The beach landing is very similar to that in Saving Private Ryan, however the pace is slower, with a smaller body count. Overall, although no doubt an achievement for it's time this film has aged badly. It's story is definitely more interesting and relevant than that in SPR, however the screenplay and acting are poor. Watch it if you have nothing else to do for 3 hrs or want some laughs.